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ORLANDO, Fla. -- It's official. After 923 winless days, many spent wandering, injured and in search of the golf game that appeared to have deserted him, Tiger Woods is back.

His face set like flint against the west winds of March, Woods broke the longest drought of his golf career on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. For the first time since September 2009, he won an official PGA TOUR event, doing so in a way that could best be described as vintage Tiger Woods.

He shot 70, the lowest round of any player in the last 16 pairings at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge. With gusty winds on a course baked hard and fast, with the pins tucked and throats tightening, Woods simply refused to let go of the lead he brought into the day. He made clutch putts when he had to, kept his nearest pursuer at arm's length all day, and let out a primal scream when the victory was no longer in doubt.

"It does feel good," he said, moments after his 2-under 70 gave him a 13-under total of 275 that was five strokes better than Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, who closed with a 74. "It feels really good. It's been a lot of hard work. I'm so thankful for a lot of people helping me out along the way. They all know who they are. It's been tough.

"It was just pure joy."

Pure joy has not been much in evidence in the two years, six months and 12 days since he won the BMW Championship at Cog Hill in Lemont, Ill. In that span, Woods has gone through a mountain of personal struggles and fought a variety of injuries to his knee, ankle and Achilles. He has, under the tutelage of Sean Foley since the 2010 PGA Championship, remade his golf swing. He has been scrutinized under the media microscope, second-guessed and disbelieved, alternately savaged and cajoled in the blogosphere. He lost his wife to divorce and fired his longtime caddie, Steve Williams.

Through it all, Woods has recited the mantra that became very familiar: it was all a process. He was working his way back to where he was. He wasn't sure when it would all come to fruition.

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